Dinner for a Buck

The New York Times' Well blog ran a column today featuring 20 healthy foods that can be had for under $1 a serving - not a bad price in this day and age (especially for someone like me who could spend hundreds of dollars on groceries each week). The list originated on the Divine Caroline site and features foods like eggs, tofu, broccoli, and chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Click here for the entire list.

I loved this list (although I could quibble with a few of the choices), and it was both a good reminder to eat some foods I don't use very often and a good affirmation of some of the foods we eat regularly. I try to always keep a can of beans in the pantry, usually chickpeas, cannellini beans, or black beans. They save me whenever I'm looking for a side dish or a super quick lunch to take to work. And they're endlessly customizable. Making something Latin flavored? Spice up black beans with red onion, cilantro, and lime juice. Italian? Stir in olive oil, fresh sage or parsley, scallion, and lemon juice. If you have it on hand, add in tuna canned in olive oil for a great tuna salad on its own or between bread.

You can pretty much taste your way to deliciousness with beans and their seasonings, but here's the recipe for the black bean salad to get you started:

LATIN BLACK BEAN SALAD

Serve with tacos, quesadillas, chicken or pork tenderloin.

Ingredients: 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 TB canola or vegetable oil
1 TB lime juice, freshly squeezed
2 TB red onion, finely chopped
2 TB cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Mix all ingredients in medium bowl.
2. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Variation:

• For French chickpea salad, stir together chickpeas, olive oil, white wine vinegar, shallot, fresh thyme and salt.

Holiday Baking Results - Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

Okay. I did not eat all of the squares missing from the pan. But, in all honesty, I could have. This candy is like a drug to me. There is something about the crunch of the graham crackers mixed with the peanut butter and offset by the chocolate that absolutely slays me. A word of warning: it is extremely sweet. The phrase “tooth-achingly sweet” always comes to mind when I take a bite. But then after the fifth, sixth, or seventh bite I’ve forgotten about the sweetness. By the tenth I’m quickly strategizing about how I’m going to force myself to put the pan back in the fridge.

Make these. Just make them.

I would advise, however, having a plan for these candies before you prepare them, e.g., sharing them with office-mates, taking them to a holiday party, etc. Don’t make them just for yourself or your family. They are too irresistible.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

2 sticks butter, melted
1 cup smooth peanut butter (like Jif or Skippy, not “natural” peanut butter)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (approx. 14 squares/7 rectangles)
1 lb. powdered sugar
12 oz milk chocolate (melted)

1. Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking pan. I use a glass Pyrex dish.
2. In a large bowl stir together the butter, peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. Pat into prepared pan.
3. Pour melted chocolate into pan over peanut butter mixture. With a spatula spread the chocolate in an even layer.
4. Refrigerate the candy for 45 minutes. Then cut it into squares (you want to do this before the chocolate hardens completely, hence the 45 minutes).
5. Store in the refrigerator, and if possible, show some restraint!

A couple of tips:

• To produce the graham cracker crumbs, I put the crackers in a large Ziploc bag then bang them with a meat mallet. A rolling pin would also work. So would the back of a pan or possibly even your fist. (You could probably forget the whole bag thing and just use a food processor, although it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.) Or, of course, if your grocery store sells graham cracker crumbs by the box you could just buy one of those.

• Instead of dirtying a bunch of pans constructing a double boiler, I have had great success melting chocolate in the microwave. The trick is to only use 50% power and to run the microwave in short bursts. For 12 ounces of chocolate I usually start with two minutes and then continue in one-minute blocks until the chocolate is just melted. If there are still a couple of solid bits that’s okay. Just stir the whole thing and the small chunks will melt.

Holiday Baking Results - Pumpkin Bread

For baking novices it’s hard to believe that a gently sweet, tender bread studded with plump, chewy raisins can be simple to make. But, it is! Basically you just mix a bunch of ingredients in a bowl, pour it into loaf pans, and then bake it. The bread is delicious spread with peanut butter for breakfast and makes a great hostess gift. (I’ve decided that this is my new hostess gift strategy – bringing them something to eat for breakfast the next day.)

Here’s the recipe, and I highly recommend it:

Pumpkin Bread

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups or 1 can pumpkin
1 cup raisins (or cranberries or a mix of the two)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I like pecans but walnuts would also work)
1/2 cup coconut
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease four small loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl stir together the dry ingredients (flour through baking soda).
3. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the four loaf pans and place in the preheated oven. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the tops of the bread are firm and golden and a toothpick inserted into the breads comes out relatively clean.
5. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans. Then remove the loaves from the pans and cool them completely on a wire rack.

P.S. These loaves freeze extremely well. Once they’re completely cool, wrap them in aluminum foil and then place them in a zip-top plastic bag. Thaw on the counter.

P.P.S. Check out the great four-loaf pan above -- they're all connected! From New York Cake and Baking.

A Big Weekend

This is it – the big holiday baking weekend. I spent some time over the last couple of weeks deciding what to make. It’s always a balancing act. I don’t want to let go of my tried-and-true Christmas favorites, but every year I find more and more recipes I want to attempt…. That’s a problem unto itself, really, because since I’m making most of these goodies to give as gifts I need sweets that I KNOW will deliver. And, unfortunately, this year I just didn’t have the time to test a bevy of cookie and candy recipes.

So, I’ve settled on a combination of the classic and the au courant:

Chocolate Peanut Butter squares – These little beauties are so outrageously delicious that I’m actually a bit of an addict. My mom made them when I was a kid, and with only five ingredients and no baking there’s no way I could strike them from my list.

Pumpkin Bread – Another childhood recipe that has stood the test of time (although I usually cut the amount of sugar the recipe calls for). This is a pumpkin quick bread studded with nuts, raisins, and coconut. Timeless – and for a reason.

Maple Nut Granola – A new one! Some of my friends don’t like getting cookies for the holidays (I know, I can’t fathom that either), so I’m going to make a big batch of granola, a moderately healthy alternative. I tested this recipe from Gourmet last weekend, using maple syrup instead of honey and switching up some of the dried fruit. I loved the cardamom flavor and the sesame seeds, but I think I will tweak the recipe a bit more, borrowing here and there from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

Chocolate Pistachio Cookies – Finally, the real gamble. I’ve been holding onto this recipe (which I can’t seem to find on-line), also from Gourmet magazine, for these shortbread-like cookies for a few years. I’ve never tried them, but I am so confident in their deliciousness that I went to New York Cake and Baking today to buy beautiful little cellophane bags to stack them in. Fingers crossed…

A note on New York Cake and Baking Distributors – I visited this store for the first time today and immediately fell in love. The shelves on the walls are lined with cake, muffin, and bread tins of every shape and size (crosses, hearts, dogs, cartoon characters, etc.). Tables in the middle of the store are packed with nifty gadgets and tools (tiny rolling pins, small Microplane graters, Silpats, and pastry tips), plus rows and rows of sanding sugar, sprinkles and other edible decorations. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. This store is just one more reason to love living in the Big Apple.

Canapés

I’ve always wanted to throw a cocktail party, especially around the holidays. Everyone would look chic, my sophisticated apartment would glow with candlelight, beautiful glasses would be filled with ruby-colored cocktails, and the food would be plentiful and gorgeous. In short, at least for one night, my life would resemble a glossy spread in Gourmet magazine.

My husband does not share this fantasy, which is probably okay since it would take an enormous amount of time and money to make our apartment resemble a home worthy of Gourmet. Not even a truckload of candles would do the trick.

However, if I were to throw a cocktail party I would definitely make canapés – delicate finger sandwiches that look impressive and taste delicious. They also don’t take long to prepare, with one caveat: when assembling these lovelies, one must use a light touch. Raggedy edges and sloppily-placed toppings have no place in the canapé realm.

The other beautiful thing about canapés is that you can really employ any savory toppings you choose. I would say that it’s essential to include a spread on the bread to moisten the canapé and anchor additional toppings – although I’m not sure if it really is essential. After the spread, add a topping for flavor and height. A garnish rounds out the elegant presentation. So use your imagination! While this may seem INCREDIBLY downscale, I’m already plotting a peanut butter canapé with a dab of artisanal jelly on top or maybe just a few slivers of grape. I’m still thinking about what the garnish would be…

Courtesy of Francine Segan, here are the recipes for the canapés we made Saturday night at the French cocktails and snacks class I took at ICE. The recipe and photo above come from The Opera Lover’s Cookbook, Francine’s latest book.

French Canapés
From: Opera Lover’s Cookbook, by Francine Segan
Serves 6

For 12 ham canapé:

3 thin slices white bread
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 thin slices smoked ham
Dijon or honey mustard
3 cornichons, thinly sliced

Butter the 3 slices of bread and top each with a slice of ham. Using a very sharp knife cut off the crusts. Cut the sandwiches in half diagonally to create 2 triangles and then in half again diagonally, creating a total of 4 triangles per slice. Top each triangle with a tiny dollop of mustard and cornichon slice.

For 6 watercress canapé:

6 thin slices black bread
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika plus more for garnish
1 hard boiled egg, minced
Salt
Freshly milled pepper
Watercress

Using a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter cut out circles from the center of the black bread. Mix the butter, paprika and egg in a small bowl until very well combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spread the butter-egg mixture onto the 6 circles and gently press watercress leaves in the center of each circle. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika.

For 12 aioli shrimp canapé:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, finely mashed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Salt
Freshly milled pepper
3 thin slices white bread
6 small shrimp, poached
Zest of 1/2 lemon

To make the aioli, combine the mayonnaise, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil in a small bowl until well mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spread the aioli onto each slice of bread. Using a very sharp knife cut off the crusts from the bread. Cut the sandwiches in half to create 2 rectangles and then in half again, creating a total of 4 squares per slice.

Thinly slice or chop the shrimp. Top each section with shrimp and a sprinkle of lemon zest.

[Jenna’s note: In class we replaced the shrimp with Italian tuna packed in olive oil. It was delicious.]

My pâté epiphany

Saturday night I took a recreational cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), the school where I earned my culinary arts diploma. The theme of Saturday’s class was French cocktails and snacks, and the course was taught by Francine Segan, a culinary historian and cookbook writer who also gives numerous food and drink-related talks around the city. Each of the recipes we prepared are in Francine’s latest book, The Opera Lover’s Cookbook: Menus for Elegant Entertaining. As I reviewed our menu for the evening, my mouth started watering…pâté with Chambord glaze, herbes de provence onion tart (a.k.a. pissaladière), tapenade red potato bites, red pepper coulis shrimp toasts and French canapés… just to name a few. My group made the pâté, the canapés, and the steak au poivre. They were all delicious (and the canapé recipes will be posted soon), but the pâté was a revelation.

In my last few weeks of culinary school we made more pâtés then I cared to count, and since then I haven’t been inspired to make a one of them. But this chicken liver pâté with the Chambord (black raspberry liqueur) glaze was so easy and so delicious. The livers are blended with dried apricots and cherries, whose sweetness makes the entire spread divine. Francine was kind enough to let me post the recipe.

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Pâté with Chambord Glaze
From: Opera Lover’s Cookbook, by Francine Segan
Serves 8

1 large red onion, minced
5 tablespoons butter
1 pound chicken livers
2 dried apricots, finely minced plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon dried cherries or cranberries, minced plus more for garnish
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup Chambord or other black raspberry liqueur
1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more as needed
Salt
Freshly milled pepper
1 teaspoon powdered unflavored gelatin
1 loaf French baguette bread, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. In a medium skillet sauté the onion in 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat for about 15 minutes, until the onion is golden. Add the liver, apricots, cherries, thyme and allspice and cook for about 3 minutes. The liver should be pink in the center. Add 1/2 cup of the Chambord and cook for about 1 minute until the liqueur is absorbed. Remove from the heat and cover until cool.

2. Place the liver, the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the cream into a food processor and purée. Add more cream if needed until the pâté is smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Place the pâté in a shallow serving container roughly 9 x 7 inches and top with a scattering of apricots and cherries. Reserve.

4. Place the gelatin in a small bowl and stir in 1/4 cup of boiling water until the gelatin is dissolved. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of Chambord and stir. Carefully pour the gelatin over the pate and refrigerate for 1 hour or until set.

5. Just before serving, preheat the broiler. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and brush with the olive oil. Toast each side of the bread under the broiler until light golden brown.

6. Place the pâté on a serving platter surrounded with the warm baguette toasts.

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Also on the menu Saturday night was coconut berry dacquoise, the gorgeous cake on the cover of Francine’s book. I have to admit that when I first saw the recipe I wasn’t excited about it. I’m usually a chocolate, caramel or lemon dessert person – I like cakes, bars, and custards with density. Dacquoises with their frothy layers of meringue and whipped cream don’t really appeal to me. BUT it was (and is, since I’m eating leftovers as I type) sensational. The chewy coconut, luscious berries and sweet whipped cream are, as the French would say, a combination formidable.

Mothers & Menus

When Rosa was a baby I planned to start her on solid foods the first weekend she was six months old. Even though I knew some people fed their babies solids a little earlier there seemed to be no reason to rush it. (Why spend even one extra weekend cleaning up baby food mess??) But one week before the scheduled start date I was looking at Rosa, looking at her mouth move and watching her eye my lunch, and I knew she was hungry. And not just for milk, but for food. She got her first taste of rice cereal that day and a couple days later some homemade applesauce.

Since that point Rosa has rarely, rarely, rarely eaten processed foods off the grocery store shelf – not baby food, not canned soup, not jarred pasta sauce. We kept some organic baby food in the pantry in case of emergency, but just opening one of those jars made me lose my appetite. I couldn’t even bring myself to taste that food; why was I asking Rosa to eat it?

I believe in eating food cooked at home, not “food” plucked off the grocery store shelf – that’s just who I am.

There is one time in life, however, when I can wholeheartedly justify and endorse buying your meals – and that’s for the first few months after giving birth. When you’re not getting any sleep, nursing, and becoming accustomed to being a parent, eating healthful, delicious meals can keep moms sane – a big plus for moms, dads, and babies. Preparing wholesome meals at this time of your life can be daunting. Enter Mothers & Menus.

Founded by mother of three Karen Gurwitz, Mothers & Menus is a meal delivery service for new moms. Sign up, and Mothers & Menus deposits a day’s worth of organic, balanced meals at your door each morning. The food sounds delicious, but what I like even more about the company is the great content on its website. Karen believes in whole foods, real foods and her site offers straight-forward, important information on organic, natural, and genetically modified foods.

Karen has also written The Well-Rounded Pregnancy Cookbook: Give Your Baby a Healthy Start with 100 Recipes that Adapt to Fit How You Feel. (And she does video podcasts. Wow!)

So in addition to helping new moms eat well (and inspiring small business owners everywhere), Karen has also made Mothers & Menus a place where all moms can learn how to better feed themselves and their families.

Sounds good to me!

What I learned in Montreal

* On Halloween, many Montreal households give out savory as well as sweet treats – in addition to her candy, Rosa received numerous small bags of Ruffles, Cheetos, and Old Dutch chips. Most people gave candy along with the chips. One lady gave us a walnut.

* When you’re making a tomato salad, skip the vinegar – the tomatoes are acidic enough. I’ve always added a dash of balsamic or red wine vinegar to my tomato salads, but darn it if my mother-in-law's sans vinegar method didn’t taste even better.

* Cardamom-spiked truffles are delicious – spicy and exotic. For a mouth-watering selection of chocolate truffles and a variety of rich, silky hot chocolates, I will visit Juliette et Chocolat on Laurier again la prochaine.

Pumpkin Time

Rosa carved her first pumpkin with Daddy last weekend. Sadly, we then left it too close to the radiator, and the pumpkin started to "wilt". So, we had to say good-bye to Mister Jack-o-Lantern -- to Rosa's continuing wistfulness.

In happier times:

In Cannes: Macaron Mania

French macarons are gorgeous things – perfectly round, chewy, and often brilliantly colored cookie-like confections made of egg whites, almond powder, and sugar. I tried making them once (pre-culinary school, I should say) and the results were not pretty. I quickly decided that macarons should be left to the macaron professionals.

I stumbled upon some of those professionals while walking through a winding pedestrian street in Cannes off of the famed (expensive) shopping street Rue d’Antibes. L’Atelier Jean Luc Pelé calls itself a “Créateur de Goût” or Creator of Taste. So maybe these macaron professionals aren’t modest… but they are pretty darn creative.

When I first walked into the shop I saw row upon row of brightly colored macarons to my left. To my right and in the back were artisanal chocolates and other decadent delights. But the macarons were too enticing to ignore. In addition to traditional varieties, Jean Luc offered flavors like rosewater, apricot-lavender, fig, and green tea. Even more surprising were the savory macarons, creations that looked just as jewel-like as their sweet counterparts: fois gras and spice, anchovy, olive, foie gras and apple, and tomato and basil. Jean Luc sells 21 flavors of macarons in all and makes them all on-site.

I picked up a few sweet flavors and conducted a taste test with my colleagues Cara and Nicole. Here were the results:

• Caramel sea salt – My favorite. The confection tasted of deep caramel, almost burned, but pleasingly so. The sea salt made the caramel dance on my tongue.

• White chocolate and rosewater – Rose is my new flavor obsession (I also bought rose petal jam at the Cannes Monoprix), but it’s definitely not for everyone. I also loved this macaron. The beginning of each bite tasted like marzipan; it was in the aftertaste that the rose made its presence known.

• Fig – I also love figs! (I guess it’s not surprising since I was the one choosing all of these flavors…). Dusted with poppy seeds, this dusky purple macaron was delicately flavored and just a bit figgy.

• Lemon – Bright yellow and chewy like a lemon square, this was Nicole and Cara’s favorite.

• Lavender-apricot – This one didn’t do it for us. The flavors were too subtle, and only Cara could detect the lavender at all. (And she’s pregnant – doesn’t pregnancy enhance your sense of smell?)

For the spectacle alone, Jean Luc is definitely worth a stop in Cannes, and according to the card they also have a shop in Paris. I’m not able to find a working website, but here’s the address in Cannes: 36 rue Meynadier.

Jetlag

I went to bed last night at 8:30 PM and woke up this morning at 5:30 PM. That can only mean one thing -- I'm back from Cannes and a little jetlagged. Cannes was beautiful, as usual. (I go to Cannes for almost a week every October for my television work). There is nothing like the hour before the sun is fully down when the lights begin to twinkle on the Mediterranean, the boats bob in the water, and the promise of champagne is in the air. And having sensational buttery, flaky croissants on demand is not such a bad thing either.

For the most part the food was terrific; we visited some old favorites and tried some new places that will become favorites. Pictures, links, and stories to come!

French breakfast ... in New York

Yesterday I had a breakfast meeting at Pastis in the Meatpacking District. It’s one of New York’s iconic French bistros – hard-to-book, pitch-perfect decor, great food, and frequent celeb-sightings. But it’s often overrun by tourists. The last time I was there for brunch, about three years ago, the server asked where we were from, and I vowed never to brunch there again.

But, weekday breakfast is another story. With no reservations required, Pastis is relaxed and extremely civilized. Smooth cappuccinos and flaky croissants made it a tasty warm-up for our French sojourn.

A Rich Weekend

Every Monday or Tuesday I start puttering around, looking through my latest food magazines, checking what pages I cornered on my current favorite cookbook, seeing whether I need to test anything for Leite’s Culinaria -- beginning to decide what to cook next week.

When I thought about the dishes I wanted to make last week I realized that my culinary cravings had advanced to autumn – I wanted warm, comforting food. In fact, for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I planned all creamy, cheesy dishes: leek tarte, butternut squash lasagna, and potato gratin (to accompany salmon and lacinto kale).

The leek tarte was from Molly Wizenberg’s (a.k.a. Orangette) column in Bon Appetit. The tarte was inspired by her trip to Belgium and is basically a thin quiche enveloping rich, creamy leek confit. It turned out beautifully, although I did make a couple of ingredient swaps: gruyere for the aged goat cheese and whole wheat flour in the place of one-third of the white flour for the crust. The crust swap was a great success. The wheat lent a nutty flavor to the tart, and the crust was still buttery and flaky. The gruyere was good, but didn’t pack enough punch. I will try the tart again with the aged goat cheese.

The butternut squash and sage lasagna, from Martha Stewart Living, was heavenly – rich, cheesy, and creamy. A bit sweet thanks to the squash; deep and woodsy courtesy of the sage. The lasagna was a big hit and will be making another appearance at my table Friday night when my parents come to visit from Colorado.

Last night’s potato gratin was also lovely, with nutmeg-spiced cream and a golden, crunchy top. I have to say that my favorite part, though, was the ultra-thin slices of potato compliments of my life-changing mandoline.

I’m not planning next week’s meals tonight, since Dave and I will be in Cannes beginning on Saturday. Something tells me I won’t be taking too much of a break from my rich, creamy diet in France, either… Spa food for me later in the month?? With even colder weather on the horizon? Probably not.

*Photo from Martha Stewart.

Pop Quiz

Rosaberry’s awesome web designer just forwarded me another project he worked on: a fun, interactive quiz about portion size on Prevention magazine’s website. Sample question: is one standard serving of rice about the same size as four dice, a half tennis ball, or a tennis ball? Some of the answers will surprise you!

The correct answer, by the way is a half tennis ball, a serving size that Dave and I regularly exceed. And, according to the quiz we don't eat large enough servings of vegetables. While we may not radically decrease our rice servings, I will work to up our veggie intake. I always like it when someone tells me to eat more of something...

Click here to take the quiz.

A Night in the Village

I met a woman last week who has only been out with her husband three times since their first child was born seven years ago. Granted, they also have four and a half year-old triplets, but that still seems pretty extreme to me.

Dave and I get out every few weeks or so, but it’s usually only for a drink after work or maybe a quick dinner. Wednesday night we did the whole shebang – drinks, dinner, and dessert, at three different places. I realized that that’s actually my favorite kind of night out. Experiencing different bars/restaurants, but still focusing entirely on the food! (I suspect Dave would like to mix it up a bit with a show or something non-food-related thrown in. Next time.) But, we had a great time Wednesday night with the added bonus that we tried three new places!

We started with drinks at Pegu Club, an atmospheric bar on the second floor of a building on Houston St., near Dos Caminos. Pegu Club is named after a bar in Rangoon, Burma during the British colonial days. At the New York version, the pretty servers wear kimonos, and subdued lanterns barely brighten the cozy tables. It feels like you’ve stepped into another world – a slightly glam, very grown-up place. Check out the website, and you’ll know what I mean.

Pegu Club well-known in the food world for its carefully-mixed, old-fashioned cocktails using fresh juices and high-quality ingredients. Basically it has taken the artisanal food movement into the cocktail milieu. I drank a French Pearl (actually two French Pearls) – gin, mint, pernod, lime and simple syrup. It was served in a delicate tulip glass and tasted divine. Dave enjoyed a whisky smash, although he did say it was a touch too sweet for his taste.

After cocktails we walked a few blocks to ’Ino, a tiny restaurant and wine bar specializing in pressed sandwiches. We were lucky to get a table, but by the time we left around 9 PM the place was jammed. We started with a plate of bruschetta including the excellent white bean with thyme and fig with arugula and proscuitto. Dave chose a panino with roasted pork loin, while I ate a delicious panino with proscuitto, bel paese cheese and sweet onion. No more alcohol for us.

While I was eating my sandwich I remembered with a happy jolt that
Grom was near the West 4th subway entrance, where we’d go to head home. Grom is a gelato chain that started in Italy a few years ago using only top-notch ingredients (lemons from the Amalfi coast for example). Its New York branch opened last year, and I’d been dying to try it. For my flavors I chose dark chocolate and caramel. Dave had hazelnut and chocolate chip. They were all good, but the hazelnut was to die for.

We were home by a little after 10, but it was really a wonderful night. I think I fell in love with New York again (I didn’t need to fall in love with Dave again!). The food and beverage choices in this city are happily overwhelming. These spots were all within a few blocks of each other and just three of over a hundred places that we could have tried. But even more thrilling was just being out with everyone else – all the different people going about their own lives in close proximity to each other, all ages, backgrounds, and interests. Who knows who else was in ‘ino Wednesday night: singers, actors, writers, accountants, designers, students, trust fund babies, teachers. The variety is endless, and I love it -- it feeds me.

Rosa in the Kitchen

For over a year Rosa has had an apron and a chef hat. She often asks to wear them so she can “make” soup or pasta with a bowl and spoon I’ve given her to play with.

But on Friday I decided it was finally time for Rosa to participate in the kitchen – just add some ingredients to a bowl, maybe help me stir. Cookies seemed to be the natural, homiest choice. I found a simple recipe in my Dorie for midnight crackles: chocolate gingerbread cookies. I put on an apron, and dressed Rosa in her apron and chef hat. She asked that I don my chef hat as well, so I did.

I stood Rosa on a chair and we go to work. I measured the dry ingredients and then, with my help, she dropped them into a mixing bowl. She taste tested the chocolate for me – a very important job. Everything was going great…until I made one little mistake: suggesting she smell the ground cloves.

I love having Rosa smell ingredients, especially fresh herbs and ground spices. I think it connects her to what we’re going to eat and opens up her senses to aromas she never before dreamed of, from mint leaves and cinnamon, to fennel and pomegranate molasses.

The ground cloves were beautiful and fragrant; to me they smell like Christmas. But, the jar was new, and the cloves were filled to the brim. And, I forgot that often when she smells something Rosa breathes out first, with a big burst of air. Soooo she blew air from her nose, and in an instant ground cloves covered her face and the countertop. She started to cry, startled for sure, but I think she also inhaled some cloves, which I’m sure wasn’t a pleasant experience. I quickly cleaned her off and gave her kisses. A second tasting of the chocolate helped ease any lingering discomfort. But, that was the end of Rosa’s helping that day (and despite baths, she smelled like cloves for the next 48 hours).

Happily, the midnight crackle cookies turned out wonderfully: dark, velvety and moist. Overall, Rosa enjoyed her first of what will surely be many baking experiences. And I learned a valuable lesson: only ask a two year-old to smell something that is guaranteed not to blow away.

Subbing for Starch

Like many cooks before me, I frequently rely on the much-maligned “protein-starch-veg” combo when planning my weekday (and some weekend) meals. Frankly, I think the combination is unfairly criticized, since a protein, starch and vegetable is a lovely, satisfying, time-honored tradition. Often I could personally skip the veg, but I know that’s not a good idea. And, if I don’t eat the protein and starch I won’t feel satisfied and usually find my spoon in the peanut butter jar later in the evening. For me the starch is usually the highlight of my meal: coconut rice, garlic roasted potatoes, sweet potato fries, quinoa, risotto, pasta salad, or even warm, crusty bread.

Recently I have been cooking for clients who don’t want gluten, potatoes, or rice in their diets. Creating menus for their dinners has been a fun challenge, because I want the meals to be both well-rounded and satisfying. So far I’ve found two strategies that seem to work.

One is to make a soup the stand-in for the belly-filling starch. A smooth carrot-ginger puree was particularly successful. Tomato and butternut squash are also looking like winners.

Another trick is to employ beans and lentils in the place of rice or potatoes. Roasted salmon on a tangy white bean salad with steamed vegetables on the side leaves even me satisfied, and when red lentils accompany a meal of rosemary-grilled shrimp and a classic Greek salad, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

While I don’t plan on giving up my potatoes anytime soon (such amazing variety! such toothsome texture!), creating these menus has helped me think outside of my traditional meal-time box and encouraged me to add some variety to my own meals at home.

That said, on tonight’s menu: beer-battered tilapia, mango salsa…and rice.

My New Favorite Pan

This is yet another chapter in the saga I call, “What was I waiting for????” Other entries have been written along similar lines: the Microplane grater, for example. Tongs. (How on God’s green earth did I ever live without tongs?) A small strainer to strain the seeds out of lemon juice. A citrus reamer. Silpat. (Thanks Allison!)

None of these things cost more than $15, most much less. Yesterday, I upped the ante a bit and spent $40 on something that I can’t believe I haven’t bought before now: a grill pan.

On sale for $39.99 at Bed, Bath and Beyond my new, square, nonstick Calphalon grill pan is, in a word, awesome. It requires virtually no oil, heats to sizzling hot very quickly, and makes absolutely beautiful grill marks. Yesterday I grilled chicken paillards, a thick tuna steak, and turkey burgers (which I detest by the way). It was easy to cook each protein to its proper level of doneness, and they all tasted light and healthy. The pan is super-easy to clean, and unlike cast iron it doesn’t require me to use two hands to lift it. The grill pan is a star!

I am far from done with the grill pan. Next I may try Asian shrimp on skewers, courtesy of a recipe I saw Corinne Trang make once. And of course, salmon, hamburgers, pork chops, vegetables….

By the way, here’s the trick to making lovely crosshatch grill marks. When you put your piece of chicken, say, on the hot pan make a mental note which end is facing “up” (12 o’clock), towards the back of the stove. After a few minutes turn the chicken 90 degrees, making the end that was once facing the top now face 9 o’clock or 3 o’clock. It’s easy, but easy to mess up, too, as I do sometimes when I forget to notice which end is at 12 o’clock. Just make that mental note and you’ll be fine.

Fish = Cake

Fish is confusing. Many nutritionists and public health advocates call it one of the best foods you can eat to promote good health. Many species are high in the famed omega-3 fatty acids, and almost all fish is high in protein and low in calories. But… and of course there’s a but…

Many species are overfished, leaving our oceans depleted. Some species that are farmed are done so in a way that’s terrible for the environment and for your health (farmed Atlantic salmon for example). Then there’s the whole mercury issue, which I know has scared some people off of fish entirely.

Personally, I err on the side of eating more fish. It’s been the basis of healthy diets for millennia AND I always feel so darn virtuous after I’ve eaten it. Like I could easily justify a piece of cake for dessert!

But, I try to choose my fish responsibly, so the seafood is good for my family’s health and the environment’s health. My favorite way to do this is to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch site. You can browse fish by type, and the site will fill you in on health and environmental concerns. And, if that’s too much work for you you can simply look at Seafood Watch’s clear-cut recommendations: “Best Choice”, “Good Alternative”, and “Avoid”.

The site also shares some astonishing fish facts. Did you know that orange roughy live up to 100 years or more? And, even more amazingly, the fish is sometimes called a “slimehead”? Yummm. But, don’t worry about eating slimehead, because according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, orange roughy is a fish to AVOID.

Photo courtesy of Colin Purrington.

Meal-time Mistakes

You have probably already guessed that food and eating are among my very most favorite parts of life. I love the fact that every meal is a new opportunity to experience pleasure and to feel good about what I’m putting into my body. The fact that I have the chance to get this buzz three times a day is pretty darn amazing!

So, rushed, stress-filled, tear-inducing mealtimes are not high on my list of fun times. But, as pretty much every parent of a toddler knows they are a sad fact of life. When we put Rosa in her high chair and place her plate in front of her, 80% of the time she eats without incident. She doesn’t always eat everything, which is completely fine with me, and she often makes a little mess, but, jeez, she’s two years old.

What haven’t been going well lately are our weeknight dinners. Anyah feeds Rosa supper at 5:30. I get home around 7 PM, and Dave and I sit down to dinner about 45 minutes later. Rosa is still awake, so she sits in a chair at the table, and essentially begs for food during the entire meal. We make her ask politely (“May I have some chicken please?”), and give her small bites. But all too frequently whining and raised voices ensue. Rosa will try to grab food on my plate, or yell, “Bread! Bread! Bread!” Neither Dave nor I enjoy our meal, and even worse, we don’t enjoy Rosa. (Although I can’t help to crack up when she says, “Give a friend a bite?”)

Plus, last night I had a flashback to every Helen Keller movie I’ve seen, with the blind and deaf Helen making an utter mess of the dinner table, grabbing food off of everyone’s plates, and basically acting like a wild child. So, I decided that a change of strategy is in order. From now on, even if she’s only eating a little bit Rosa will sit in her high chair. I expect a much more civilized dinner!

It’s amazing how many pitfalls can come with feeding your child, just beginning with what they’re eating. Yesterday I read a great article in the New York Times: 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make, from pressuring them to take a bite to serving boring vegetables. The article has been one of the site’s top two most popular reads since it was published, and I can see why: it offers practical advice that will hopefully make everyone’s dinnertime a true pleasure.